Thanx Steve, the video brought back great memories of a time I spent in Rome working at Campo de Fiore(midnite-7) for 2 mos. about 10 yrs ago. I was a little surprised Marco didn't mention it. Every morning the square would awaken to the smell of that bread and a beautiful farmers market w/ fresh flowers and produce from the farms outside Rome.

always alive ... fantastic produce market by day, clothes and novelties at night, five minutes from the Piazza Navona, two minutes walk from the Tiber and Trastevere in a section of Rome dating back to the Empire ... right out of a Piranesi print. whenever i'm in Rome, i stay close by.

Once you look at this video you know why I did not go into baking. I love doing it now but that was a whole lot of work and unbelievable hours. My dad did most of what these guys do and did it with just 2 people helping in the bakery not counting the clerks and the decorator. He could not imagine doing anything else but I just could not see myself doing that for the rest of my life. It is far from being recreational baking. If you have the money and the location and the population to justify hiring a lot of people, that is one thing. When you are the only baker in a town of 10K people, that is entirely different. Doesn't matter how good you are, and he was excellent, there is still a upper limit to what you can afford.

Thanks for posting this - I actually downloaded the video. Sad to say, I've never been to Italy. Hopefully one day I'll be able to visit - when I do, I will visit this remarkable place.

Chip C - I envy you (and I don't). I fully realize what a grueling business this is - watching this video made me realize it all the more. Yet, probably because of the flour in my veins :D, I want to be able to make everything I saw on the video.

Sigh... my hips can't take it, though...(the calories - but I could also say that this type of work would wear down my aging hips, too, lol, and all the other joints in my body.)

I thought at first it was way too fast paced, but it soon became evident it had to be in order to get in all the activity they actually do there every day. I have no idea what half those products are, but I want to try them all.

I was in Rome, Italy recently and I remembered this great video SteveB posted. I decided to visit the place. I went there on a Sunday the first time round and it was closed unfortunately. There was so much to cover in Rome that we didn't get to visit Campo di Fiori on Tuesday, the day before I left for Florence. I didn't regret it at all. The bread was wonderful, there was so much to choose from, I didn't know what to do, staring at the bread for a full 10 minutes. I think the lady at the counter must have thought I was mad or something, kept asking me what I would like in Italian. A kind man, spoke to us in English, and recommended that we try their pizza bainco (seems like plain pizza without any sauce), one of their famous bake, and the lady behind the counter gave us a free sampling. It was so good, I bought it and a plain pane.

In fact, the best that I've tasted so far in Italy - from Rome to Florence, to Venice to Milan. This is the best. It was fresh, and I took it along on my train ride, I didn't have them until the following day, they still tasted good.

I have some photos that I took while the workers were loading and unloading the long pizza from the oven. will upload and show you all. They were so kind to even pose and allow me to take a picture. You got to be there to try it!

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